Review: BOYHOOD, An Extraordinary Chronicle Of Growing Up

Shot over the course of 12 years with the same core cast, Richard Linklater's latest film Boyhood is a rare cinematic feat for reasons that go beyond its already unorthodox production. Call it "This
American Boy's Life", Linklater's chronicle of growing up white and middle class in America is extraordinary merely because it is -- for being white and middle class
in America --so careful, considerate and contemplative with what can seem ordinary.

Boyhood begins with a shot that feels lifted from the director's animated dream-scape/ philosophy course Waking Life.
We are witness to the sky: a brilliant blue, with fluffy clouds
that look like they are out of, well... a dream. In one shot, even before we see
our hero, Linklater establishes an exacting theme for the film: the wonder
of curiosity. We then meet Mason, a sandy haired boy of about six. His
bright eyes hold a wisdom beyond his years. These eyes were the eyes
looking up into that blue sky, those clouds, and beyond.

Like
many of Linklater's heroes, alter-egos and creative outliers, Mason is a
dreamer. His mom, Olivia (played wonderfully by Patrica Arquette),
inquires as to why he did not hand in his homework. "Because nobody
asked me to," he plainly states. It is 2001, and Mason lives in a Texas
suburb with his mother and older sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater).
His days are spent biking with buddies, playing video games and making
graffiti. When his mom announces they are moving to Houston so she can
continue her schooling, Mason and Sam take it like any children would:
they are weary and skeptical and scared, taking it out on their mom and
each other.

The move to Houston eventually yields a step-father in the form of one of Olivia's professors... and step siblings. Boyhood,
with its own brand of grand intimacy, does not yield much traditional
plotting outside of linearly charting Mason ages 6-18, but we encounter
many dynamic stories and characters that ebb and flow, appear and
disappear throughout the film's 161 minute running time. Many of these
come in the form of adult males, sometimes antagonists, perhaps even
falling into old cliches (especially when considering the good ol' boy
mentality of some Texans).

But in the hands of Linklater, these men are
always painfully human. Broken children themselves, they are usually put
off by Mason, who just seems to be himself, equally conscious of the
world around him and blissfully elsewhere. One step-father's story
erupts in abuse and alcoholism, a second step-father's tale ends
similarly though less sensationally. Mason's birth father, played by
Linklater mainstay Ethan Hawke, is, despite not being around for long
stretches of his children's lives, the good man. And that's because it's
been a hard journey for Mason Sr. too. What separates him from the
rest of the men Mason, Olivia and Sam encounter, is that he's just
quite plainly honest about all the bullshit in life.

What may be the most fascinating and indeed quite beautiful thing about Boyhood
is that it is not a coming of age story. For Linklater is not wholly
interested in how a child could eventually defines himself as an adult person
in the world. Because Mason at 6, at 8, at 12, at 15, is already very much a
person. Childhood through Linklater's lens is then that time to define and reshape as needed...
just as much as it can be in his films about adulthood. Through long and short hair, that preteen pudginess to lanky, sallow faced teen, to earrings,
punky skater clothes and the embarrassing t-shirts a mom picks out for her
son, we see the astonishing mutability of a person, who remains very
much themselves, and yet, totally becomes someone else. Every boy's love
of Star Wars and video games morphs into a passion and dedication for
photography we not only see but palpably feel.

Linklater fans will remember that section in Waking Life
where the two middle-aged women talk about how our cells regenerate
every seven years, and we are, thus, a new person every seven years. Boyhood
could then be the cinematic actualization of that idea. But this is
not merely Mason's story. This is his family's story too. Arquette's Olivia goes
from a hard working single mother, to wife and full time student, to
teacher and single mother once again. Hawke's Mason Sr. starts out as the cool, GTO
driving dad whose been off on a boat in Alaska, to a man who settles
down with a new wife and child, and is thus able to become more present
in his older children's lives.
Played by Linklater's own daughter, Lorelai, Mason's older sister Sam is the know-it-all, at times a best friend and worst enemy. The attention spent on
the siblings' relationship may not be the focus of the film, but it is
key to making it feel believable, and Lorelai Linklater is a joy to watch.

So that brings us to Linklater's main collaborator on this journey: Ellar Coltrane. Boyhood,
which could very well be subtitled "Portrait of the American artist as a
child," expects a lot of Coltrane, but it is in Linklater's wish to
collaborate freely that allows the now young man to participate in such
fascinating ways. What we witness here is perhaps like nothing quite
seen before in the medium. On one hand there is the actor developing his
craft and skill, becoming more elated by ideas and theories, and
confident in and fascinated by the world around him. Where Mason ends and where Coltrane begins is a hard line to draw, but that
does not lessen his performance. In fact, because of the nature of the
film, it no doubt strengthens it.

As it goes, Linklater's cinema is an inquisitive cinema. One of curiosity,
resonance, and observation. He cherishes the moments that offer solitude
and reflection as much as the camaraderie and conflict one can find with others. It may be appropriate in some circles to call Boyhood
his magnum opus. Because to consider Boyhood is to consider Linklater's 25 year career, thus far. From his first underground feature It's Impossible To Learn To Plow By Reading Books, to his ode to high school, Dazed And Confused, and perhaps most importantly and relevant here, his 17-year spanning Before Series.

To consider Boyhood
is to also consider early 21st century America: its politics, its culture, its
wars and technology. As a document of a generation of children, and a
generation of parents, it is perhaps more complete, alive and
important than any other American film of its kind in the last 15 years. It's
clarity of vision is remarkable for all its extraordinary parts coming
together so beautifully.

This is then a work of a seasoned
storyteller who is able to look at the world with fresh eyes. Linklater acts as the wanderer, the outlier, and if you want to get really
book-smart about it, he is the quintessential cinematic chronicler of the rise of the
Left Brain thinker in America. Once called slackers (an affectionate
term for Linklater), these young men and women are now the
innovators and bright thinkers of our time. Whether they know it or not.

For Linklater to
chart such a path from childhood on, with a collaborator like Coltrane at his side,
is a miracle in any medium, but all the more wondrous to behold in
cinema: a form more often than not focused on the short-term approach.

This review was published in a slightly different form during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Boyhood opens in New York and LA on July 11 with a nation wide release to follow.

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